1. Field
Aspects of the present disclosure relate generally to wireless communication systems, and more particularly, to methods and apparatus of monitoring radio channels.
2. Background
Wireless communication networks are widely deployed to provide various communication services such as telephony, video, data, messaging, broadcasts, and so on. Such networks, which are usually multiple access networks, support communications for multiple users by sharing the available network resources. One example of such a network is the UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access Network (UTRAN). The UTRAN is the radio access network (RAN) defined as a part of the Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS), a third generation (3G) mobile phone technology supported by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP). The UMTS, which is the successor to Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) technologies, currently supports various air interface standards, such as Wideband-Code Division Multiple Access (W-CDMA), Time Division-Code Division Multiple Access (TD-CDMA), and Time Division-Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access (TD-SCDMA). The UMTS also supports enhanced 3G data communications protocols, such as High Speed Packet Access (HSPA), which provides higher data transfer speeds and capacity to associated UMTS networks.
Another, more advanced network is the evolved UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access Network, also referred to as the Long Term Evolution (LTE) network. As LTE network deployments largely overlaps with W-CDMA deployments, when a suitable LTE cell becomes available, typically it is preferable for a user equipment (UE) operating on a W-CDMA cell to reselect to the LTE cell as soon as the reselection conditions are met. Current cell reselection mechanisms, however, may be relatively slow in performing the reselection to the LTE cell. This may be especially true when the reselection conditions include maintaining a reselection criterion for a certain time period.
Therefore, improved cell reselection mechanisms are desired.